The OWWA Treatment Committee is a volunteer group consisting of representatives from Ontario utilities, consultants, academia and our regulatory authority MECP with a technical focus on drinking water treatment. The Treatment Committee meet virtually once per month to discuss and further our two main objectives in support of our OWWA membership and the general public which are: the support of knowledge transfer between industry partners; and the provision of technical feedback in treatment-related regulatory and guidance documents. 

The committee supports knowledge transfer through several activities including: organizing an annual Treatment Spring Seminar; supporting abstract review and session organziation for treatment sessions at the OWWA Annual Conference; organizing plant tours, often in collaboration with our Young Professional liaison; and through authoring and submitting articles to industry journals. Technical feedback consists of participating in public review of draft documents for Ontario regulatory updates and Health Canada guidance documents, in which committee members provide both direct technical feedback and encourage and collate feedback from within our broader technical networks. 

Sound interesting? If so, why not join! The process for submitting an application to join the treatment committee can be found here.

Further Information on some of our specific activities can be found below. 

The Treatment Committee achieves these goals through four main annual activities: Seminars, Tours, Technical Reviews, and Publication of Articles.

Annual Seminars

Every year the Treatment Committee organizes a Spring Seminar, normally in late March, on subjects relating to drinking water treatment.

On December 5, 2025, the OWWA Treatment Committee, in collaboration with the OWWA Young Professionals Committee, hosted a tour of the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant in Kitchener, Ontario. The tour was led by Martin Roberts of the Region of Waterloo, with support from Treatment Committee members Mike McKie and Peter Clarke. The event was well attended and received very positive feedback from participants.

Technical Reviews

The Treatment Committee routinely reviews:

The Treatment Committee also offers comments through the Environmental Bill of Rights public consultation process.

Tours

The Treatment Committee typically co-hosts a WTP plant tour each year with the Young Professionals Committee. 

Publication of Articles

The Treatment Committee prepares articles on treatment-related issues for publication in the OWWA Pipeline. Click on the recent articles below.